It is a common practice in the pork industry to confine sows during their gestation periods. For economic and practical reasons, it has been the practice to individually confine groups of the animals in the smallest floor area or space that will suffice. Heretofore, it has been a wide spread practice to confine gestating sows in individual enclosures arranged side-by-side in rows with each enclosure being wide and long enough to accommodate the sows when either standing or lying down, but not wide or long enough to allow the animals to turn around or have appreciable body movements. It has been recognized that such confinement systems are subject to several significant drawbacks and disadvantages. For example, by reason of their lack of adequate body movement, the animals tend to have leg weakness and lameness and a tendency toward other health problems associated with lack of exercise. Further, due to restricted body movement animal waste tends to accumulate in the enclosure occupied by an animal's hind-quarters resulting in impaired hygiene with associated increase in incidence of cystitis and vaginal infections due to the animal's sitting and lying in manure.